CHENNAI: After pleading with the State Transport Department for more than a year to fix the pothole-ridden service lane under the MIT flyover, the New Colony Residents Welfare Association (NCRWA) threatened to plant seeds in the potholes on Sunday.
This threat finally drew the attention of the Highways Department which began work on the lane in front of government Tambaram hospital just before the protest began. The members of the welfare association soon called off their protest.
“Petition after petition has been ignored and out of sheer desperation we threatened to plant seeds in the potholes,” said V Santhanam, president of NCRWA.
The service lane which begins at the government Tambaram hospital is a one-km stretch which ends at Mahalakshmi Residency on the GST road. The entire stretch is lined with craters filled with rainwater.
“Some parts of the service lane were broken to lay pipes for Metro Water connection,” said D Devaraj, treasurer of the NCRWA
“The Highways Department, despite charging the Chennai Metro Water for damaging the roads, has not re-laid the roads with that money,” he claimed. Some of the larger craters filled in with construction debris have been battered by the rains and are again posing threat to unwary motorists.